Looking Back, Looking Ahead
By President Lee Eliot Berk
Right from the start, I have been at the heart of what is one of today's really great colleges. What is somewhat unusual is that it has been a family experience all the way.
Joining the staff at Berklee after law school was much more than an exciting professional opportunity; it was a decision to contribute to the continuation of my family's life's work. Lawrence Berk, my father and the founder of Berklee, was of course there at the start. My mother Alma started to work professionally at Berklee from the time I entered high school and founded Berklee's Department of Public Information. During most of my own years at Berklee, one or both of my parents were actively involved in the college.
About a half-century ago, my father came home for dinner one night. He said that the founding chair of our Brass Department, Fred Berman (the father of current Berklee Trustee Rhoda Sapers), had come into his office that day to share a dream he had about the school being named Berklee, in honor of his son, Lee.
Before you jump to any misplaced conclusions about the appropriateness of this unexpected honor, let me remind you that the magnitude of this distinction related to a Berklee that was far distant from what Berklee would ultimately become, and that was not apparent at that time. The fathers of John Nicholas Brown and Ezra Cornell (who founded Brown and Cornell universities, respectively) would definitely not have been entranced by the idea of the naming opportunity my father's school was contemplating.
As it turned out, and happily for me, this was a great naming opportunity. You can see for yourself what passed for a serious and thorough branding study in those early days at our institution!
Larry Berk and the founding pioneers of Berklee hadn't found in conservatories the educational opportunities they felt could meet their professional needs. I expect we can trace the roots of our "Nothing Conservatory About It" branding campaign all the way back to their early frustrations. They brought a huge entrepreneurial spirit to organizing formal jazz education and a strong commitment to continually expanding music-education opportunities.
I have loved every minute that I have spent at Berklee expanding music education opportunities. Pursuit of that dream has taken us from the creation of new fields of study in music to the establishment of a music-study publications division, from the establishment of a City Music Program for talented urban teens to relationships with other schools all over the world who share our vision, from the offering of worldwide scholarship tours to the embrace of the Internet to offer distance learning everywhere on the face of the planet.
Since marrying my wife, Susan, 28 years ago, I have had the good fortune to have a spouse who has provided enormous love and support and has shared a wide array of Berklee experiences with me and made many friends for Berklee. We greatly appreciate the many interactions we have had with trustees, faculty, staff, students, parents, alumni, and friends of Berklee who have meant so much to us. We also appreciate the incredible music that so many from Berklee have contributed to the culture of our time.
I have been truly blessed with both personal and professional families that have provided a very special life indeed. And I am very proud of the educational legacy that the Berks have established at Berklee College of Music and that our daughters Nancy and Lucy have shared with their grandparents and parents. I know Berklee will continue to go from success to success and garner much-deserved accolades in higher education, the music industry, and society at large.
